Prosecutors failed to bring the expert witnesses they required to give evidence against 23-year-old Coray Tierney.
A Scot who allegedly crashed the FBI website in a cyber attack has had the case against him thrown out by a sheriff.
Hacking accused Coray Tierney was due to go on trial on Monday in connection with a series of online attacks on banks and the US-based crime agency.
But prosecutors failed to bring the expert witnesses they required to give evidence against the 23-year-old from Dundee.
Fiscal depute Kate Scarborough told Dundee Sheriff Court that the case against Tierney was based primarily on a report by cyber crime experts.
However, she asked for the trial to be adjourned after telling the court the expert duo were unavailable as they had been sent on a once-a-year training course.
She said: “The Crown is largely relying on the cyber crime report. The authors are attending a specialised training course and are not able to attend for trial.
“This is a case which really centres around that report and the authors need to speak to it so the Crown is not in a position to proceed today. The Crown move to adjourn.”
Solicitor Billy Watt, defending, opposed the motion and told the court that the case had been hanging over his client for a number of years.
Mr Watt said: “He pleads not guilty and is ready to proceed to trial. This is the second trial diet and there have been four case management hearings.
“This is the third motion to adjourn on the same basis and the previous two were refused. It’s been the same reason each time – that the authors of the cyber crime report won’t be available.
“I appreciate the position that it would be difficult to run the trial, but the age of it is such that it goes back to 2021 and there have been numerous callings of the case.
“This has been hanging over him for some time. From my point of view, the report doesn’t take us anywhere and no witnesses have been cited from any of the companies listed as complainers.
“We don’t have anyone from the FBI for example. There is no-one to speak to it other than those who analysed the computer. This has been hanging over him for years and it’s not his fault that those persons are not available.”
Tierney denied hacking into major financial institutions including the Bank of Israel and HSBC. He denied spending more than a year carrying out cyber attacks on major organisations which also included the makers of leading computer game Fortnite.
Tierney denied carrying out cyber attacks on a variety of companies from his home between December 1, 2021, and March 19, 2023.
He denied “carrying out an unauthorised act in relation to a computer and did intend to, or were reckless as to whether it would enable him to impair the operation of the computer, and did distribute denial of service cyber attacks against computers belonging to named organisations.”
The targeted organisations were named in the charge as Epic Games Ltd – creators of global hit Fortnite – anti-virus operator Malwarebytes, HSBC, the Bank of Israel and the FBI. The charge is contrary to the Computer Misuse Act s3.
Mr Watt said: “I do have some reservations about this case. I note the nature of the allegation and the Crown don’t seem to have witnesses cited from the FBI, the Bank of Israel or HSBC.
“I have the cybercrime report, but I don’t think it assists in any great detail. It looks like some screenshots anyone could have taken off a computer screen.
“They may be making the inference, but there is nothing to suggest how that hacking may or may not have taken place. There is nothing in the report from anyone who has been hacked or is alleged to have been hacked.”
Sheriff Mark O’Hanlon said: “The report is now here, but there are no witnesses here because they are on a training course. The Crown motion is refused.”
The case against Tierney was deserted pro loco et tempore, meaning it could potentially be re-raised at a later date.
It is understood that the FBI website crashed and became unavailable to users during some of the time period when the hacking allegedly took place.
